New England Salmon Hatcheries and Salmon Fisheries in the Late 19th Century eBook

Landlocked salmon (here so called) are, I think, nearly
or quite as plenty at Grand Lake Stream as they were
ten years ago; this, I think, is almost entirely due
to the hatchery under the charge of Mr. Atkins; the
tannery at the head of the stream having entirely destroyed
their natural spawning beds, the deposit of hair and
other refuse being in some places inches deep.
The twenty-five per cent. of all fish hatched, which
are honestly returned to our river, is, I think, each
year more than we would get by the natural process,
under present circumstances, in ten years.

FrankTodd.

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SAINT STEPHEN, N. B., DOMINION OF CANADA.

Prof. Spencer F. Baird, U. S. Commissioner
Fish and Fisheries:

Sir: I think it has been clearly demonstrated
in this Dominion that by artificial propagation and
a fair amount of protection, all natural salmon rivers
may be kept thoroughly stocked with this fish, and
rivers that have been depleted, through any cause,
brought back to their former excellence.

I would instance the river Restigouche in support
of the above statement.

This river, which empties into the Bay of Chaleur,
is now, and always has been, the foremost salmon river
in New Brunswick, both as to size and number of fish.
It has not a dam or obstruction to the free passage
of fish from its mouth to its source, yet up to 1868
and 1869 the numbers of salmon had constantly decreased.
This, no doubt, was occasioned by excessive netting
at the mouth, and spearing the fish during the summer
in the pools; natural production was not able to keep
up with this waste.

In the year 1868 the number of salmon was so small
that the total catch by anglers was only 20 salmon,
and the commercial yield only 37,000 pounds.
At about this date, the first salmon hatchery of the
Dominion was built upon this river and a better system
of protection inaugurated; every year since some hundreds
of thousands of young salmon have been hatched and
placed in these waters, and the result has been, that
in 1878 one angler alone (out of hundreds that were
fishing the river) in sixteen days killed by his own
rod eighty salmon, seventy-five of which averaged
over twenty-six pounds each; while at the same time
the numbers that were being taken by the net fishermen
below, for commercial purposes, were beyond precedent,
amounting in that one division alone (not counting
local and home consumption) to the enormous weight
of 500,000 pounds, and the cash receipts for salmon
in Restigouche County that year amounted to more than
$40,000, besides which some $5,000 was expended by
anglers; this result was almost entirely brought about
by artificial propagation. A new hatchery of
size sufficient to produce five million young fish
annually will no doubt soon be erected by the Dominion
Government upon this river.